Montreal spring på/spring af-tur

So much fun to be able to get off and spend time seeing attractions and getting back on to go to the next one. The guide and Driver interacted with and and were very knowledgeable about everything Montreal

This was the most disappointing hop on/off bus tour we have ever been on, and we have been on many. Pros: we booked our tickets online and when we got on at the 2nd stop all we had to do was show them the QR code on the phone. No hassle. Cons: the pick-up locations are not marked, so we had to just hope we were waiting in the correct spot. The stop locations are rather vague on the website, but after much time on the internet I was finally able to find approximate addresses, and hoped they were correct. We were one of the first tours of the day, so we weren't that surprised that the bus was almost full and we couldn't sit on top. However, it must have been an older bus, and it was rather dark/dingy. The diesel fuel smell inside was horrible. It was stuffy. We were sitting on the right side, but the seats on the left side were elevated so we couldn't see anything out of the left-side windows. The windows on the right side were a bit high, so not that easy to see out of. As many people have noted, the tour operator says everything twice. - once in French and then in English - so he had to speak very fast and sometimes we passed up something while he was still explaining it. Also, there wasn't a lot of history along the way about what we were seeing. For example, he was remarking about "that beautiful white church" as we quickly drove by, but didn't tell us anything about it other than how nice the steeple looked against the blue sky. There was some information given about some places, but not the detail we heard on other bus tours. They dropped us off at the St. Joseph Oratory several blocks away in a neighborhood without telling us how to get there. I mean it was up on a hill so we could see it, but we couldn't figure out why they couldn't bring us right to it, like all the other busses did. After the Oratory we decided not to wait for goodness knows how long for another bus and continue the tour, and instead enjoyed a clean, bright, great smelling Uber ride back to Old Montreal.

This was a terrible experience for us, after waiting 45 minutes at the Notre Dame Basilica stop, we couldn’t get on the bus and were told that the next his was also full. We walked up to the main office (25 min) and asked for a refund. Lots of confusion and miscommunication, nowhere did it say that we had to line up at Dorchester Square for a wristband before we could get on the bus.

The only problem was that the main meeting place was never listed and when I called I was given the wrong address. We ended up finding it though so we were ok.

Great way to experience the main tourist attractions and get a little history and background in a short amount of time.

On a cold and windy September morning, we took an Uber from our **Hyatt Place Montreal Downtown** hotel to the tour departure point at **1001 Dorchester Square**, allowing plenty of time to board the first bus at 10:00 AM. Each passenger was given a green wristband confirming that we had paid for the tour. Our guide, **Julien (if I remember his name correctly)**, did an excellent job providing bilingual commentary throughout the ride. He seemed to have something interesting to tell us about almost everything we passed. The bus was a double-decker, with enclosed seating downstairs and open-air seating on the upper level. Given the chilly temperature and wind, my wife and I wisely chose to sit inside. Some hardier passengers chose the open upper deck and were fully exposed to the cold and wind. The seats inside were comfortable, and the seat belts were in good working order. My only criticism concerned the volume of the speaker carrying Julien's narration. Initially, my cellphone sound-meter app registered approximately **85–90 decibels**, which I found uncomfortably loud. To Julien's credit, he responded when the volume became an issue. His first adjustment made it too quiet, but the third setting was the charm—he got it just right. Julien was informative and engaging, and we decided to remain on the bus for almost the entire circuit rather than immediately hopping on and off. This gave us a good overview of Montreal and helped us get our bearings before exploring individual areas in greater depth. We did notice a potential drawback to the “hop-on, hop-off” concept. Many passengers, like us, remained aboard for much of the circuit. As a result, there appeared to be very little available seating for some of the people waiting to board at designated stops. Depending on how crowded the buses are, the ability to actually hop on and off when you wish may therefore be somewhat limited. I think the quality of this type of tour is also **highly dependent on the narrator**. A knowledgeable and engaging guide can transform what might otherwise be simply a bus ride into a worthwhile introduction to the city. We were fortunate to have Julien and were very pleased with his commentary. Despite the potential difficulty of reboarding a crowded bus, we found the tour to be a very good **first exposure to Montreal** and a useful way to become oriented to the city. **Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars.**

Toured Montreal on the Hop on hop off bus with another couple of friends last August. The previous day we arrived with a tour group and a scheduled city tour was somewhat ruined by a severe storm, that made the bus the following day well worthwhile as it was a bright sunny day letting us see even thing the storm had prevented! The commentary was generally good and in both French and English. We did get caught out later in the day when the last bus had gone leaving us a 1-2 km walk back to our hotel - somewhat self inflicted by not checking timetable well in advance.

We enjoyed seeing the city and the humor of our guide Frederick. Would highly recommend for visitors to get a feel for what sites to see in Montreal. Unfortunately the bus was not able to take us to Mont Royal because of a bicycle race that weekend.

It is a very simple tour, really very short; it is necessary to take care of details like cleanliness and punctuality; sometimes the buses take an hour or more to pass.

When we booked our trip we were unaware that the World Cycling was happening on the weekend we booked. We went and booked the Hop On Hop Off tour for 2 days. Needless to say that due to the race that was happening on the weekend there were road closures and had to alter the usual routes. We travelled Thursday, Friday and the race was occurring Saturday and Sunday. There was confusion because we had electronic tickets but were told we needed to go to the head office and pick up our bracelets. This was frustrating because it was a 25min walk and thank goodness we do not have mobility issues but 4 seniors that were at our stop needed to take a taxi to head office. The line ups were huge and many people were unable to actually get on due to being full. I would not discourage others in taking this tour but double check what is happening in the city when you are planning your tour.